A few Fridays ago I drove to Greenwood Village, a suburb about 20 minutes south of Denver, and hiked the Highline Canal trail, seen in the photograph on the left. Greenwood Village is a pretty expensive community, with most if not all of the homes valued at well over a million dollars. Several times, years ago, when I worked for the Highlands Ranch Post Office, they would send me to Greenwood Village to substitute for the regular rural carrier. And I must tell you, it was never a pleasant experience. It was a very complicated route, and it took over half the day just to sort the mail. Then I would head out to deliver that mail knowing it would take well into the evening to finish. The route was more or less divided into three areas - huge homes with large pastures for horses; a woodsy area with homes set back in the trees; and a rather new area with homes that were absolutely enormous. What do they do with all that space? Rent rooms to students? Keep their horses in there?
Usually it was daylight when I delivered the mail to the homes with the horses, some of whom can be seen in the photograph on the right, but when I got to the homes in the woods, the sun was beginning to set, and I knew it would be a long night. By the time I got to the neighborhood with the gigantic homes, called The Preserve, it was pitch black, and I still had a long way to go. One time I remember having to get out of that subdivision to buy gas (out of my own pocket, by the way), since the tank was almost empty. I then had to return to finish delivering the mail. It wasn't until after midnight when I finished, and keep in mind that you don't get paid by the hour, but by the route. You get the same amount of money whether it takes you 2 hours or 12. In short, the scenery and the weather were both very pleasant that recent Friday, but I spent the entire time thinking about how much I hated that damn job. In that regard, I suppose this is more of a rant than a reminiscence. Oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment